Falcon powers – The former Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yitzhak Yosef, has called on the religious Jewish “Haredim” to continue rejecting military service and tearing up conscription orders for military service, according to Hebrew media on Wednesday.
The army is scheduled to start sending conscription orders to thousands of Haredim, who have been exempted from conscription since 1949, this coming Sunday, which has sparked public and political controversy.
The Israeli public broadcaster (official) reported that it obtained an audio recording of the former Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef saying: “Every Torah scholar is exempt from conscription, even an unemployed person who does not study.”
He added: “Those who join the army are corrupted. There are female soldiers and female officers, and vulgar language, there are terrible and inappropriate things. Do not go there.”
Yosef called on every Haredi person who receives a conscription order to “tear it up and not go (to the military)”.
As of 9:30 GMT, there has been no official response to Yosef’s statements.
The Haredim make up about 13% of Israel’s population of about 10 million, and they do not serve in the army, saying they dedicate their lives to studying the Torah in religious institutions, and consider integration into the secular world a threat to their religious identity and the continuity of their community.
